LAUSR

Is the seminar of the nineteenth century the “laboratory” of philology? As the writings of Wilhelm Dilthey, Julius Zacher, and Wilhelm Scherer examined in this study show, the discourse growing around the philological seminar and its library in the latter half of the nineteenth century touches upon this phenomenon in a variety of aspects. The discourse surrounding the epistemological space of the seminar library serves to characterize the institutional dimension to the formation of an epistemic habitus, to describe the deeply personal dimension of knowledge transfer, and to consider of craftsmanship and virtuosity as dimensions of establishing and applying philological knowledge.